Will Juan Thornhill’s injury change the Kansas City Chiefs offseason approach?

Given the fact that Juan Thornhill faces a long road to recovery and could even miss some time heading into next season, will the Chiefs change their offseason approach?

The Kansas City Chiefs were supposed to be set at safety for years to come. Juan Thornhill and Tyrann Mathieu was not only a great looking duo to import on paper, but the on-field product somehow exceeded expectations. After a year with pitiful safety play, fans were once again reminded of what a dynamic presence in the secondary can bring to the whole unit.

Unfortunately, the former half of that duo now faces a long climb back to being ready next season. That’s not to say that Juan Thornhill won’t be Juan Thornhill again in the future—even the near future. It’s just that any player who has torn an ACL will admit that rest and rehabilitation require a lot of work. There are also some people who just aren’t the same on the other side no matter how much effort they put into it.

Like it or not, the Chiefs must admit the unknowns when it comes to Thornhill’s unfortunate injury. The questions come in a few categories:

Timeline: 

Thornhill is not only out for the entirety of the postseason but he might be forced to miss some time next season as well. The average recovery for a torn ACL is anywhere from 6 to 9 months, which means that Thornhill might be ready to roll before training camp even begins. He might also still be nursing the injury as the regular season begins. The Chiefs must also be prepared for the fact that the 6 to 9 months is just a general timeframe with outliers on both sides. Has a player missed a full year due to an ACL tear? Yes.

Game Shape:

Even when Thornhill is ready to begin to ease his way back into offseason training activities or training camp drills or regular practices for the Chiefs, he’s going to need time to work his way back into game shape. He’ll be fighting not only the physical battles but the mental hurdles as well telling him to take things farther than he should or vice versa, pushing him to play it safe when he’s actually fully ready to go back out there.

“It’s a dark place because the rehab is pretty tough on a day-to-day basis,” said former Chiefs cornerback Darrelle Revis about his own ACL recovery. “Sometimes you might think you’re not doing enough for that day, and that’s something you have to fight through.”

Even upon his return, Thornhill will need time to round back into the late season form he’d found as a rookie in 2019.

Return to Form:

This is the scariest part. Even Thornhill himself has no way of knowing if he will be the same player on the other side of this injury. Some players like Robert Griffin III or Kiko Alonso were never the same after suffering the injury. On the flip side, even a team like the Chiefs have seen several players come back just fine, from Jeremy Maclin to Jamaal Charles to Eric Berry. It’s really such an individual thing that it makes it impossible to predict.

This means that for all parties involved, patience will be required. Unfortunately for the Chiefs, there are just a couple windows within which they can potentially form some sort of contingency plan in case Thornhill encounters a worst-case scenario in his rehabilitation: the first few weeks of free agency in mid-March and the NFL Draft in late April.

Right now it looks as if the Chiefs plan for replacing Thornhill in the interim is to use Armani Watts and Kendall Fuller in a committee approach to cover for his loss. Unfortunately for the Chiefs, Fuller is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent in 2020. Another safety Jordan Lucas is also ready to test the market, which means Mathieu, Dan Sorensen, and Watts are the three safeties under contract for next year besides Thornhill.

Will the Chiefs want to add a potential starting free safety in the mix? If Thornhill comes back, would it be a wasted asset? Maybe not given how many safeties earn significant playing time in defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s system. After this coming year, Sorensen is also scheduled for free agency, but he’s also due nearly $5 million as a part-time safety. If the Chiefs were strapped for cash even this offseason, they could cut ties a year early for only $1M of dead cap space.

Basically the Chiefs are in a position where adding another safety to round out the ranks might not be the worst idea for Brett Veach. There might be bigger fish to fry, but even making a move to give the team some flexibility there could pay off by allowing the Chiefs to bring in another young defensive back who will find space to play anyway—even if Thornhill comes back just fine.